You’re not going to survive as a theater if you don’t mean something to your community.”

David Morse

As an actor, Chestnut Hill’s David Morse nearly brought down the House.

That would be Dr. House, the grumpy, Vicodin-addicted genius physician who tangled with the wrong guy, a vengeful police detective played by David Morse on the longtime medical drama TV hit series, “House.”

On Valentine’s Day, Morse will be doing the exact opposite – bringing up the house, co-starring in a benefit performance as part of a $7 million campaign to upgrade the home of the Quintessence Theatre Group, the Sedgwick Theater on Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy. 

Morse, an award-winning television, film and stage actor, and his wife, former actor Susan Wheeler Duff Morse, will perform A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” a tender romantic comedy about two childhood friends who stayed in touch by mail over 50 years.

Believers in regional theater, Morse and Wheeler wanted to help Quintessence. 

“You’re not going to survive as a theater if you don’t mean something to your community,” Morse said. To him, Quintessence’s 14-year history is proof enough that it does. “It’s just reassuring that [Quintessence’s] vision and what [it] is offering has meaning. And it seems that after 14 years, you have to believe it’s happening.”

Wheeler grew up in Chestnut Hill. The couple moved here from California after losing their home in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Through family and community connections, they got to know Quintessence’s founding artistic director, Alexander Burns, who also grew up in the area and graduated from Germantown Friends School.

Morse appreciates Burns’ ambition “to be thought of as a theater in the community, both embracing the community and being embraced by the community.” A recent Quintessence report said that 40 percent of its audience comes from Northwest Philadelphia.

The couple also sees Quintessence as an important part of Mt. Airy’s thriving commercial district. “It’s important to have something like Quintessence on the block – for the restaurants there and the stores there,” Morse said. 

One can make a distinction, he said, between community theater groups, which stage delightful and meaningful plays performed by talented amateurs, and organizations like Quintessence. 

Quintessence casts professional, union-represented actors for its progressive interpretations of classic works. Burns “hires Equity actors and has to pay them a living wage,” Morse said.

There’s a reason Morse connects with Burns and his ambitions.

Morse got his start at age 17 at a similar professional repertory theater in Boston. Esquire Jauchem, then an upcoming professional director, stepped in to direct a show at Morse’s high school. Jauchem was so impressed with Morse’s talent that he invited him, at age 17, to become a founding member of the Boston Repertory Theatre. 

“We did a similar thing where we started humbly,” Morse said. “We wound up buying a building in the theater district. I know what it takes and it’s pretty awesome that Burns is endeavoring to do it.”

Quintessence has been working for months to buy the Sedgwick Theater, now owned by Betty Ann and David Fellner. Closing on the $2.3 million deal is set for March 28, with $2 million of the purchase price raised. Financing has been secured for the remaining $300,000, but Burns hopes to fundraise that sum before closing.

“I think it’s a necessary next step for our institution,” Burns said. “We’re in our 14th year and we really need to renovate aspects of the building to make it a world-class professional theater space.”

The Valentine’s Day fundraiser isn’t intended to underwrite the purchase of the building but is a $50,000 step in the $7 million effort to improve the current space and restore the façade. The restoration will include a marquis made of new materials and fashioned to duplicate the former one. 

“The original was quite a spectacular movie marquis on the Avenue,” Burns said. “We’re rebuilding it from scratch.”

Interior work includes stabilizing the existing performance space, increasing the number of seats from 175 to 250, and upgrading actors’ dressing rooms and bathrooms to meet union requirements. So far, Quintessence has raised $2.8 million of the $7 million.

“The Sedgwick will be 100 years old in 2028 and for its 100th birthday, we want it to look as fabulous as it should,” he said.

Architect William Harold Lee designed the Art Deco movie palace, which opened in 1928 and closed in 1966. Two of his other theaters, the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and The Hiway Theater in Jenkintown, have been restored.

Perhaps in the future, there will be enough money to open the rest of the theater. 

“Do you know about the Broadway-sized theater in the back?” Wheeler asked during a recent interview. Quintessence uses two former lobbies and a ticket area for its current performance and lobby space.

Right now, an interior cinder block wall hides a 1,600-seat movie theater in the rear of the building. While some architectural features remain, it is mostly empty and has been used for storage and warehouse space. 

“It’s really drop-dead,” she said. “The space seems to go on forever.”

Burns said he is honored to have Morse and Wheeler inaugurate what amounts to the public launching of the remainder of the $7 million campaign. Other events will follow.

“David is one of the great actors of the American stage and screen,” Burns said. “This was his inspiration, and it was so exciting not only having them endorsing Quintessence but also to actually have him be on our stage and show off.”

The Quintessence promises a special evening on Feb. 14. Doors open at 7 p.m. with a champagne, specialty cocktail, and hors d'oeuvres reception. The performance begins at 8 p.m. and is followed by more time for mingling after the show. Tickets range from a $150 seat to $1000 for a table for four.

A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters" has been a favorite for this type of event. Two actors, playing Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, sit on stage, side by side, and read the letters each has written to the other over 50 years starting from thank you notes and epistles penned at summer camp.

They each married other people, but, in their letters, shared years of triumphs and challenges, only realizing at the end the specialness of their relationship. “It would be very hard not to be moved by this play. It’s very touching,” Morse said.

When they got the script, Morse and Wheeler sat side by side at their dining room table and went through “Love Letters” page by page. 

For experienced actors like Morse and Wheeler, “Love Letters” is a relatively simple endeavor – no blocking, no extravagant costumes, no memorizing lines, just reading the letters. “We don’t have to learn the lines and we just give ourselves over to these two people and their experience,” Morse said.

For Wheeler, even reading the lines raised contradictory feelings.

Wheeler had played Lady Macbeth in “Macbeth” on stage, and Candice Bergen’s stepmother on “Murphy Brown," as well as roles in “Mr. President,” “LA Law,” “Deadly Intentions” and “The Twilight Zone.” Films included “Miracles” and “Personal Foul.” 

When the earthquake destroyed their home, the couple moved to Philadelphia and Wheeler stopped acting – two decisions made in pursuit of stability. No more earthquakes and a more stable home life than acting allows. It was a tough call for her, but necessary.

Preparing for the play “made me realize how much I miss being on stage and how much I don’t like being on stage – how much I love it and how much I hate it,” she said. “It’s a lifetime that David has been doing it and I respect that. But it’s hard work.”

They had just begun to read the lines when Morse stopped her so they could work out some nuances. 

“I thought, ‘Oh s***, acting is hard,’” she said. “‘I can’t stand this; I’m never going to do it again.’ I went away and licked my wounds,” and then came back and kept rehearsing, grateful, she said, for the feedback.

These days, Wheeler, who plays duplicate bridge around the country, is working on a book about the game. She is a card-carrying member of the American Contract Bridge League and writes for the ACBL Bridge Bulletin. 

In 2011, writing as Susan Morse, Wheeler penned “The Habit,” a memoir about her mother who became an Orthodox Christian nun at the age of 85.

Concentrating mostly on films, Morse also rarely takes the stage these days. However, he recently earned a Tony Award nomination for the 2022 Broadway revival of “How I Learned to Drive.” He won a Lucille Lortel Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Obie Award as the lead in the original 1997 Off-Broadway production. 

Morse is perhaps best known for his television credits and has been nominated for Emmys for his roles on “House" and HBO’s “John Adams.” He has appeared in many other television shows, including “Escape at Dannemora,” “Hack” (in which Morse starred as a Philadelphia cab driver), “Treme,” “True Detective,” “Outsiders” and “St. Elsewhere.”

Film credits include “Concussion” (2015), “World War Z” (2013), “The Hurt Locker” (2009), “16 Blocks” (2006), “Dancer in the Dark” (2000), and “The Green Mile” (1999). He also has appeared in Apple’s “The Last Thing He Told Me,” and “The Morning Show,” Netflix’s “The Chair,” HBO’s “The Deuce” and Showtime’s “The Good Lord Bird.”

Opening in theaters March 8 is “Cabrini,” a biographical film about the life of Roman Catholic missionary and future saint Francesca Cabrini. Morse plays Archbishop Corrigan. Cabrini University alumni saw a private screening of the film in September. 

Also coming are two independent films, “Blood Knot” and “La Gloria.” “Blood Knot” is a family drama about a fly-fishing tournament, starring Michael Douglas. Morse plays Douglas’ father when Douglas was younger. In “La Gloria,” Morse leads as a Texas rancher who accidentally shoots a young migrant as she crosses his land. 

“Love Letters:” A Valentine’s Day Benefit For Quintessence Theatre. Wed., Feb. 14, 7 p.m., Sedgwick Theater, 7137 Germantown Ave., Mt. Airy. Champagne reception at 7 p.m., performance at 8 p.m., followed by a post-show reception. Includes Valentine's Day chocolate gift from High Point Espresso and Pastry Shop. Tickets, $150 per seat up to a deluxe table for four at $1,000, available at QTGREP.ORG, or by calling the Box Office at 215-987-4450. You can reach Jane Von Bergen at  janevonbtheater@gmail.com